I never know when someone’s on drugs or had plastic surgery, or when a poem is supposed to “really” be about sex even though it’s clearly about plants. I never get metaphors. Everything always has to be explained to me, like Ax in the Animorphs series.
I can be counted on not to understand what a song is “really” about unless that meaning is spelled out explicitly; if a song does not contain the word “abortion” in it, I can generally be counted on to never realize it’s about abortion at all. Conversely, you could tell me that almost any song with slightly opaque lyrics is about an abortion, and I would believe you with a perfect and a childlike faith, because I no longer trust my own judgment. Is “The Fool on the Hill” about an abortion? If you told me so, I would believe you.
Song: “Brick,” Ben Folds
What it’s about: Abortion
What I thought it was about: I guess just generally being sad at Christmas? Maybe, if I thought very hard about it, I would have guessed it was about someone being sick, but I never thought very hard about it. It just struck me as melancholic. In retrospect, this song is not nearly as vague as I thought it was; I should have known.
Song: “The Freshmen,” The Verve Pipe
What it’s about: Abortion
What I thought it was about: Not only did I have no idea this song was about an abortion until well into my college years, I once sang it at the karaoke machine in a Discovery Zone at my sixth-grade birthday party. If I am very honest, I believe I interpreted the line “fell through the ice when we tried not to slip” as being about an honest-to-God ice skating accident. In my defense, the band members themselves seem a little confused:
According to the FAQ on “Verve Pipings,” guitarist and lead singer Brian Vander Ark wrote the song in 1991 about the guilt he felt from his ex-girlfriend committing suicide. However, according to an external interview site, Vander Ark revealed that the suicide was poetic license; the real incident which inspired the song was when his pregnant girlfriend had an abortion.
I knew it was a sad song. Grant me at least that much understanding. I grasped the general emotional tenor of the thing.
Song: “Slide,” Goo Goo Dolls
What it’s about: Abortion
What I thought it was about: I did not realize this song was about an abortion until I wrote this article. Hand to God, I had no idea. I (of course) googled the phrase “songs about abortion that don’t say the word abortion” and (of course) found a Wikipedia list of “songs about abortion,” and Slide was on it. Look, I’m not an idiot. I know that “Bodies” by the Sex Pistols is about abortion, because they say it’s about abortion in the song. This is the kind of guided hand-holding I require when it comes to songs about abortion.
Rzeznik said of this before performing it on VH1 Storytellers: “The song is actually about these two teenage kids, and the girlfriend gets pregnant, and they’re trying to decide whether she should get an abortion, or they should get married or what should go on.”
Well, I never.
Song: “Lime Tree,” Bright Eyes
What it’s about: Abortion
What I thought it was about: I have no idea. I never try to guess what Bright Eyes songs are about, but this one is entirely on me. “Since the operation I heard you’re breathing just for one” should have given it away; the fault is mine.
I live my entire life like that moment Homer realizes he’s been calling Mrs. Krabappel “Crandall” for years by mistake. I never know when anything is about abortion, so now I just generally assume most songs are unless told otherwise.
Tags: abortion, bright eyes, goo goo dolls, i’ve been calling her crandall, mallory does not understand imagery, metaphors, music, the verve pipe
I always thought “Someone Great” by LCD Soundsystem was about abortion, or a miscarriage, or a baby dying. Thoughts?
It’s actually about the death of James Murphy’s therapist.
OH! Well that makes sense too.
Somehow I thought it was about a mistress or cheating on someone? In retrospect, that makes no sense. I don’t know, I’m terrible at understanding metaphors, and also at paying enough attention to song lyrics to get the gist. Now that I have actively looked up the lyrics, though, I agree that it’s probably about someone dying.
Thank you, that was the song I spent this entire post trying to think of.
I… what? Slide is about abortion?
I suffer from the same affliction as Mallory, I guess, because the only one of these I knew about was Brick. And that’s only because I had to go to Presbyterian Sunday School one time when my (very non-Christian; long story) mom was church-shopping. Presbyterians are not supposed to be that into social issues, by my understanding, but they were talking about abortion and sinful song lyrics anyway?? So that’s how I learned about Brick, some sweet Presbyterian kids saying they liked the song until they realized what it was about, and now they felt bad listening to it.
Reminds me of my (smart, but naive) Mormon friend in high school who was convinced Chubawamba’s Tubthumping was literally, actually about a man falling over repeatedly and then picking himself back up. Not about, y’know, drinking and fighting.
As yes, everyone’s favorite anarchist collective that (I assume) lives off of royalties from their song being played at stadiums.
Yeah, I mean, I couldn’t fault her too much, because the song does not really earn the right to be about getting drunk and in a fight in a pub.
Pretty sure they don’t – I know a couple of them slightly. I know they left that record label and went back to independent publishing – I’m not sure they get royalties at all. They turned into an acoustic folk band for the next few albums and have properly split up now.
When I was 16, I went to youth group at my cousin’s (very born-again) Presbyterian church. The youth group leader grilled me about my musical preferences, and when I said I liked XTC, he spent 20 minutes telling me how terrible and ungodly they were, solely because of the song “Dear God.”
(Later, when I thought about it, I realized he couldn’t have really listened to that song, because it’s not about being an atheist.)
I am with you! MY MIND IS BLOWN. “Slide” was like my favorite song as a child and I sang it all the time and was definitely convinced it was a charming love song so when I saw this I was like “Whaaaaaat? Noooooo” and I listened to it again and was like, “Yeah this is 10000000% about unwanted pregnancy and abortion… woooops”
So what I’m saying is you learn something new every day
“Don’t you love the life you killed?
The priest is on the phone.
Your father hit the wall.
Your ma’ disowned you.”
Sounds like abortion to me.
The 2nd verse is the only one that really gets into the abortion aspect of things:
“Don’t you love the life you killed
The priest is on the phone
Your father hit the wall
Your mom disowned you”
I didn’t get the song when it first came out (I was only 13 at the time though), but listening to it again as an adult, I remember thinking “Wow, how did I not notice this?”
Wait, “Slide” is about abortion?? Wtf. How does that make any sense? I think Johnny Rzeznik is a dirty liar.
so the best I can guess is these lines:
“Don’t you love the life you’ve killed
the priest is on the phone
your father hit the wall
your mom disowned you”
Which I always assumed was figurative, like “the life she killed” was her old life, but again, you should never trust my understanding of a metaphor.
I just posted this downthread, but I thought it was her old life, too!
there was a (shameful) time in my life when I (inexplicably) Heavily Identified with Slide, & I had *no* idea it was about abortion either.
I believe I may’ve even put it on a mix CD I made for my my highschool boyfriend. haha, whuups!
This is definitely a song I associated with my 8th grade crush. OOPS.
Yeah I thought she’d started having sex with the singer!
Well she had, I guess.
All these years, I could never parse those first two lines. The diction is so sloppy that I had no idea what the words were. The music is upbeat, so I just went with that. Silly me. Music/lyric disjunction strikes again!
I guess it’s this verse: “Don’t you love the life you killed?/The priest is on the phone/Your father hit the wall/Your ma disowned you.” But like you, I always thought this was a bit of a love song. I think I’ve always assumed that the couple was just really rebellious or something because of this verse.
I feel the same way. I thought it was simply about teenagers in love. I mean, a priest being on the phone, dad hitting the wall, and mom disowning her can all EASILY tie into the “wanna get married” “run away” lines (btw – the word “OR” preceding “run away” is damn-near inaudible, so I assumed they were discussing getting married AND running away, which goes along with the priest, the dad, and the mom). I think Rzeznik is full of shit and just said “It’s about abortion” to make it seem more interesting. Maybe not, but…
And, yes, “Don’t you love the life you killed” I assumed to mean her old life. Though, admittedly, I thought it was odd to say that if they HAVEN’T yet gotten married…but, if mom disowned her, her old life is clearly dead now anyway, so…
This is like when I found out that Golden Brown by the Stranglers is about drug use. Which was last year.
What??
These things out to come with disclaimers. Somehow (and admittedly I didn’t read the lyrics so maybe is misheard some) I kind of thought it was about a girl and her pretty hair..?
I KNOW. But no, they’ve said it can be read as about heroin use or about a girl.
Okay, wait. I’ve long thought that Aaliyah’s “Are You That Somebody” was about abortion. I understand logically that it probably isn’t, BUT with those haunting baby sounds plus the chorus:
If I let this go
You can’t tell nobody
I’m talking bout nobody
Are you responsible?
Boy I gotta watch my body
I’m not just anybody
idk, i’m not fully convinced it isn’t about abortion. thoughts?
I believe it.
Whoaaaaaaa now that you say that, it makes total sense. Mind = blown.
mayyyyyyyyyyyyyybe. but [puts on That Guy hat] it’s actually “I gotta watch my back.” which doesn’t really change the interpretation, I just need to be a pedant sometimes.
…although for my money it’s more about wanting to hook up with someone but not wanting it to turn into a personal hell afterwards.
To be honest, as much as I love that song–and oh man do I love the tango dance break–I have no idea what it’s about. I’ve mostly settled on “general anxiety about starting a new sexual relationship because what if the dude is trifling or gives you a disease or. . . tells his friends, I guess?”
My personal take is that it’s about using protection ie condoms, because if she “lets it go” – lets him get away with not using a condom, there could be a baby.
Yeah the thing that always caught me was it never felt like an overarching theme, but definitely underlying and something I couldn’t quite shake off and just dance/shimmy to the song.
Yes! I had this epiphany about two months ago (I had just gone down an Aaliyah rabbit hole, then got unreasonably upset that she and Drake will never be together, I mean, just Google Image search Drake and Aaliyah. Ahhh.) But, yes, I totally think it’s about abortion.
THANK YOU I thought I was the only one who thought this.
THE MORE YOU KNOW: The dude from the Verve Pipe actually made the whole damn thing up, abortion included.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Freshmen_(song)
So Mallory, you sort of didn’t miss that one.
Wait, made up the fact that an ex of his had one, or made up the meaning of the song?
I read it as the fact that an ex of his had one…? Right? Like, he assigned an imaginary abortion to her?
Actually, looking at it that way I guess the song is still about abortion, technically, even if it’s a fake one.
#dude from the Verve Pipe must have had an interesting LiveJournal
It was a fictional abortion, but still an abortion… Still one of my favorite songs ever.
Slide is about abortion? What?? I… No. I just refuse to believe it.
I figured out the Ben Folds song… about 5 years after it came out. I’m just like you. I just do not pick up on these things.
The late 90s were apparently some sort of Golden Age of Top 40 pop rock vague abortion songs. All about dudes having sads about it, of course.
Couldn’t put it better myself, down-thread, and didn’t.
Maybe, but, down thread at your comment, Mallory appointed you her personal cup-bearer and that’s pretty cool. I’m still just mucking out The Toast stables.
Official Toast Assistant Pig-Keeper
Also, “Pretty Girls” by Neko Case. She says that it’s about sitting in a Planned Parenthood waiting room. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yYRwUiNmy0
This was a lovely antidote to all the dudes who have abortion feelings – which are totally justified, but I was really comforted by hearing some abortion songs from people who have had abortions.
Totally unrelated to the article, but “like Ax in the Animorphs series” is THE BEST reference. Not enough Animorphs in my life.
Here is an article we have published about Animorphs: http://the-toast.net/2013/11/19/scientific-questi…
Just had a sudden flashback to GLOBULES
DELICIOUS GLOBULES
I once found a zip folder containing (in some cases terribly made) ebooks of every Animorphs book. I read them all and they totally hold up.
Oh my god please share!!
I know nothing about Animorphs, but your user name is THE BEST. Please tell me you kick people in the shins and obsessively follow the stock market.
your username is turtle wexler and you zeroed in on the animorphs thing, are you me
I don’t think I would ever have thought on my own that the Goo Goo Dolls were edgy enough to write a song about teenage abortion. I assumed that their music was always intended to be future hold music for the insurance company. I guess that’ll teach me to…nah, I still can’t care about the Goo Goo Dolls.
I knew about some of these other songs, but I don’t think until now I realized that my generation of pop music was full of so many white dudes singing about abortion.
“I assumed that their music was always intended to be future hold music for the insurance company.”
+1
In fairness there are a bunch of songs by women and non-white dudes about abortion (there’s a whole Wikipedia list of ’em!!), they just generally seem less opaque, so I grasped the meaning more readily.
I think it’s interesting that these songs tend to be more opaque. I agree that men are allowed to have feelings about abortions (like you said in another comment below). But this list makes me have a lot of (open-ended, entry-level) thoughts on which people feel like they have what degrees of permission to talk about abortion, and the levels of openness they’re comfortable with–and the levels of popularity afforded to the music.
I assumed that their music was always intended to be future hold music for the insurance company.
This line is making me chortle quietly to myself in the office..
Laughing because some corporate drones don’t realize that they are playing songs about abortion, drugs and sex on their hold music.This is a beautiful thing.
Okay, wait. I’ve long thought that Aaliyah’s “Are You That Somebody” was about abortion. I understand logically that it probably isn’t, BUT with those haunting baby sounds plus the chorus:
“Slide?” I guess that explains the ‘priest is on the phone’ line but I always thought it was more about a girl having a mental breakdown.
What about the Antlers’ song, Bear? http://youtu.be/YESdx5AHyJc
WE DO NOT SPEAK OF THAT ENTIRE ALBUM IT IS TOO SAD
I can’t even hear/read the word “Hospice” without crying for multiple reasons.
I propose that in the future, all lists of songs (this is not a toast-exclusive stance; it also extends to buzzfeed quizzes) should include embedded video for musically illiterate people who have heard all of these songs, but could not identify them by title/artist if their lives depended on it.
I can do that right now!
Ahhhh amazing!
The great thing about the 90s alternative channel on accuradio.com is that I am finally learning the titles/artists of all the songs I know every word of but hitherto could never identify.
Wait is Black Balloon by The Kills also about abortion? Why am I just thinking about this??!? I
I thought “Black Balloon” was about heroin.
THIS IS LOGICAL. BUT AFTER READING THIS INSANITY, UP IS DOWN, LEFT IS RIGHT AND THERE IS NO DANA ONLY ZUUL.
I need a nap.
weirdly, there is also a Goo Goo Dolls song called Black Balloon. (why am I compulsively outing myself as Someone Who Knows Things about the Goo Goo Dolls on this forum?! whyyyy?!?!? I didn’t even have their albummmmmm.)
That one IS about about abortion right?
Wait, is every balloon song about abortion?
Was 99 Luftballoons just because Nena was really promiscuous?
I thought you were talking about “Black Balloon” by the Goo Goo Dolls, which is also about heroin. All songs about balloons are about heroin.
this is really off-topic but it occurred to me recently that the line “open up my eager eyes” from “Mr. Brightside” by the Killers clearly originates with 99 Red Balloons &…I don’t have a point about that really I just thought it was weird & that I should mention it for some reason.
I understand this post. I just sing along when I’m moved to and then maybe after about the hundredth time a line or two will finally sink in. Or not. I’ve had some pretty amazing and/or silly revelations about songs that I’ve known for thirty years or longer.
Slurs (always) and swear words (when I’m not by myself) do put me on alert, but otherwise I’m on cruise control once I open my mouth and start singing. I have anxiety issues and the singing without thinking thing helps a lot when I’m under stress.
Every song that’s not about abortion is about heroin.
Though, weirdly, this song is actually about abortion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffr0opfm6I4
(Just kidding Mallory it’s about heroin.)
lololololol
Or crystal meth. Doing it will lift you up until you break.
Not true. ‘(What’s the Story) Morning Glory’ is about cocaine.
coke rap is about abortion
Lust for Life is about having a great time on a cruise ship.
A supposedly fun thing he’ll never do again.
“Don’t you love the life you killed?
The priest is on the phone
Your father hit the wall
Your ma disowned you”
I guess I just ignored this part of Slide? hmmm
I always thought it was a metaphor about her own life. Like, she killed the life she had before she met the narrator.
Me too! I kind of thought she left her family for the narrator,,
Ha, I always thought it said, “Don’t you love him like The Cure?” Because obviously. But I just didn’t understand the priest line.
But… it is silly to like The Cure
Oh! Is “Ode to Billy Joe” (ahem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZt5Q-u4crc) about an abortion-related suicide? I did some lazy internet research on this in the past but could find no definitive answer.
WAIT but okay doesn’t that song talk about them dropping a bundle off the bridge?? In which case it would be about infanticide, so it doesn’t count
Hm, the lyric just says “throwing something” off the bridge… I speculated that might have been an aborted baby, but it does seem unlikely that her solicitous mother (so attentive to her eating habits!) would not have noticed her pregnancy if she were that far along. I’m passing it. Not about abortion!
I think it is, she threw the baby off the bridge. And herself. That’s my guess. But like Mallory, I don’t understand these things. For all I know it was about heroin too.
Wait, I thought HE threw himself off the bridge after they infanticided together. The narrator is the girl. Right??
It IS? Now I’m really confused, because girls in the South can be named Billie Jo too, so I thought it was a girl. You may be right, I’ll have to listen again. It does make sense
Yes, he definitely throws himself off the bridge, but I don’t think that it is a baby they throw off the bridge! I always assumed it was an engagement ring or some other token of affection. Like she broke up with him, he killed himself, and now she feels horrible and sad and responsible and throws flowers into the river.
In interviews, Bobbie Gentry, who wrote and sang the song, refused to explicitly say what was thrown off the bridge. She was more interested in how people miss the point of the song, which is the complete indifference of the narrator’s family to that fact that her boyfriend has just committed suicide. They’re all just sitting around gossiping and not noticing that the narrator is falling apart. Bobbie Gentry is a mysterious goddess — see interview here: http://performingsongwriter.com/bobbie-gentry-ode…
There’s yet another school of thought that suggested the parcel was evidence of a gay relationship, which would make the narrator a beard of sorts for poor Billie Jo. And now I want biscuits.
Hm, I always thought the lyrics suggested that her family didn’t KNOW he was her boyfriend, and the suicide had something to do with their secret relationship.
Sinead’s is my favourite version of this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn6L9gd8ch8
Awesome. That makes heelza sense.
*furiously googles “Slide” lyrics*
Well, huh.
But where do we come down with regards to “Ticket to Ride”?
It’s actually about an Irish women who bought a ferry ticket to the UK to be able to get an abortion (and she don’t care).
WHAT
DON’T MESS WITH ME
ARE YOU GUYS BEING SERIOUS
NO, NOT BEING SERIOUS! JOKING!
Or maybe not, who knows, I am also terrible at this kind of thing. (I finished Animal Farm and was just like, those pigs sure are jerks!)
lolololol oh my doge
“those pigs sure are jerks”
you are my hero
Isle of Wight, town of Ryde, provider of late-term abortions. Although the evidence is kinda shaky; it depends on John conflating romantic partner abandonment with maternal abandonment.
the “slide” one actually makes a lot of sense in retrospect, but i had no idea. that was the first song i ever learned to play on guitar– i learned it the summer i accidentally went to christian sleep-away camp and the entire guitar club played it together. irony!
For some reason I don’t understand the context of this Simpsons image, so all I can think of is abortions for some, miniature American flags for others.
“Wait a minute. Bart’s teacher is named Krabappel? Oh, I’ve been calling her Crandall! Why didn’t someone tell me? Ohhh, I’ve been making an idiot of myself!”
It is entirely possible to make a whole batch and never consider the implications.
you. you have made me happy this evening.
On a related note, I never realize songs are actually about drugs, and I really don’t appreciate being told about it. Yes, in hindsight, Puff the Magic Dragon and Jackie Papers were probably drug-inspired, but that is my CHILDHOOD, leave it alone. And why can’t Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds just be a nice, Last of the Great Wangdoodles-type fantasy? Wait, is Last of the Great Wangdoodles about drugs?
John Lennon claims that Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was the title of a drawing his 4-year-old son Julian brought home from school…Lucy was apparently a girl in his class, and not a terrifying character in an LSD trip.
I mean you can make the case that all of the songs on Sgt Pepper were about acid, but this one seems to have begun innocently enough.
The actual woman Lucy who inspired the drawing that inspired the song recently died of Lupus, and Julian Lennon has since been promoting Lupus awareness and research fundraising in her honor. A sad, but touching coda to that story.
http://www.lupus.org/general-news/entry/julian-le…
Oh man, tears at work. That’s really touching.
I was just logging in to say the same thing! The Beatles promise that Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was not written about LSD. Although they totally get why you would think that.
Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles is by Julie Andrews, so no, not about drugs.
Right?
I HOPE IT ACTUALLY IS
I’m pretty sure Peter Paul and Mary have said that Puff the Magic Dragon is about the end of childhood, not drugs.
Yeah, I think if you listen to the lyrics it is very clearly about the end of childhood, and the drug stuff is only because he’s named “Puff”
I was raised super-conservative, music-wise. No secular music, no radio, etc. For this reason, for years, whenever I heard any pop song that mentioned God or Jesus or used the word holy or anything faintly religious, I assumed the singer was a Christian. Pretty sure my crowning achievement in this young lifetime of delusion came when I creatively interpreted Meatloaf’s I Would Do Anything for Love as meaning that while he really loved this woman, he would definitely NOT have sex with her before marriage (that’s what the holy water would help with, obviously, TEMPTATION). I…no, still, I have no words for this.
ETA: the reason I have no words is because I can’t stop giggling at my own doofishness. I mean, really. 12-year-old me is just killing me dead right now.
I was raised by reasonably liberal boomers but I also thought the “that” of the song was “have sex.” it seemed like a perfectly reasonable premise for a male-narrator pop song when I was an innocent young tween. which is pretty hilarious/adorable in retrospect (particularly when the singer’s most famous song is about pressuring someone to lose their virginity).
Yeah, clearly I was not very familiar with the rest of Meat Loaf’s repertoire.
wait what even IS that song about? the video implies that he won’t turn her into a vampire, but…
there’s actually a weirdly extensive Wikipedia article about this! but the short answer is: “no one knows.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I'd_Do_Anything_for_Love_(But_I_Won't_Do_That))
also my parents actually TOOK ME TO A MEAT LOAF CONCERT when this song was out so there’s really no excuse for my ignorance. like, I was probably the most “familiar with the rest of Meat Loaf’s repertoire” 12-year-old girl in the entire country. in addition to, apparently, the most naive.
BAHAHAHAHA “1.2 Perceived ambiguity of ‘that'”
Also, holy cow, the original version of the song is over 12 minutes long, and the lady sings 6 verses?? ::disappears into a Meat Loaf-wikipedia wormhole::
Very relevant:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTPko-aXvJM
The full version of the song would occasionally come up in the mix at the party store I used to work at, and it was definitely one of those where you tune out for five minutes, and then come back and go, “huh, this song is still playing.” (see also: Rock Lobster)
Also, can we hear more about the Meat Loaf concert?? I am picturing something like the set of the music video for I Would Do Anything for Love. You know, fog and candelabras and motorcycles and stuff, but I’m sure this is not right (sadly).
I don’t remember it super vividly, but it was pretty theatrical while still being a fairly straightforward rock show–there were definitely fog machines. also ML’s daughter was singing backup with him at the time, which was…weird for “Paradise By the Dashboard Light.”
the thing I remember best was my dad turning to me solemnly & saying “that smell you smell is marijuana smoke” & feeling disappointed because I couldn’t detect what he was talking about. (it was at an outdoor venue where plenty of people were smoking unfunny cigarettes & apparently it’s way harder to detect the scent of weed if you’re uninitiated.)
also there was this really long kind of performance-art spoken-word piece where he talked about taking his guitar & smashing it against the wall, & there was a LOT of profanity. & then the next day I wore my comically oversized Meat Loaf concert tour shirt to school with Lee jeans in a vaguely periwinkle-colored wash & black cowboy boots &…the disparity between “how cool I thought I looked” & “how absurd I actually looked” is so vast that I’m actually chuckling to myself while typing this out 18 years later.
…I still do kinda have a soft spot for Meat Loaf though. I once sang along to the entirety of Bat Out of Hell to keep myself awake during a solo road trip, causing me to lose my voice for like a week afterward.
Letting her do butt stuff to him.
bahahahahhahahahaaaa
Yes! A hugpunch after my own heart.
that’s also what Hall & Oates’ “I Can’t Go For That” is about
Probably one of the two most-asked questions in musicdom, the other one being, of course, “What does that guy say at the end of that Radiohead video?”
This is adorable.
I had a willfully naive college roommate who wanted to believe all pop songs about God/Jesus. No, roommate, “Your Body is a Wonderland” cannot possibly be about the Holy Spirit.
TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
so the “I’ll use my hands” part was in reference to…the sign of the cross, in this reading?
I also had a college friend who staunchly maintained that these lines from “Hallelujah” were about their souls, and their souls only:
And remember when I moved in you
The holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah
I desperately want to know how they got around “the shape you take when crawling toward the pillowcase.”
Me, about age 12, early 80’s, trying to convince my very conservative religious mother that Prince was totally a good Christian musician for me to listen to because he prayed to Jesus before every concert. I gave it my all, I truly did.
Men singing songs about abortion, by men.
I DUNNO, I realize this is not the most misandrist stance in the world, but it does not horrifically bother me that these guys sing about abortions. They can have feelings about abortions! That is allowed.
Now bring me my lunch on a tray. I want a goblet of something, but I won’t tell you what it is until you get it right.
Oh they’re definitely allowed, I deserve to have feelings about an abortion too. Just observing that it’s across the board. Like osutein said above, “All about dudes having sads about it”.
Here’s your goblet of diet coke. *whispers* don’t hurt me.
I WANTED DR PEPPER
*returns reluctantly* They only have Mr. Pibb *wince*
That is inexcusable.
With regards to that, “Slide” is indubitably the best: “I wanna wake up where you are/I won’t say anything at all.” Yes, YES man friend, good job being there without spouting opinions! (I mean, he’s written a song, but still.)
Had Ben Folds not explicitly explained the backstory of “Brick” on Ben Folds Live, it likely would have taken me a lot longer to realize it wasn’t about depression.
YES. Until this post I fully believed it was depression. I will continue to believe it, no matter what.
I thought it was about cancer when it first came out, probably because my mom had cancer and the imagery was familiar.
I still remember the first time I noticed that a song was about sex.
I think I was 12, it was a Backstreet Boys song. So I relate to this post.
was it “I Want It That Way”? related: do you know what “I Want It That Way” is about because those lyrics make no fucking sense whatsoever.
All songs are improved if you assume “that” is a euphemism for anal.
That makes “I Can’t Go for That” by Hall and Oates much more enjoyable. Thanks!
I thought it was about sandwiches?
Is the one you’re thinking of “If you want it to be good, girl”? Because if so, I will admit to totally not understanding the lyrics OR the fact that the “ohs” and “ahs” near the end of the song sound like someone having an orgasm until well into my teens. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcNSxCchW1M).
Unless, of course, you’re talking about a different BSB song about sex, of which there are MANY.
This is probably the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever admitted to on the internet but when that song came out, my best friend and I would listen to it and make out with pillows that we were pretending were Nick and Brian, respectively. So there’s that.
I honestly thought Slide was about the parents getting on their case because they thought that the kids were having sex. Abortion never entered my mind.
I just heard a version of “I Kissed a Girl” where they bleeped out the word “cherry,” as in, “the taste of her cherry [chapstick]” and I was like
Remember the radio edit of “Teenage Dirtbag” where they bleeped out “gun” but not “dick”?
I love the fact that the censoring actually makes the line seem dirtier than it’s supposed to be.
a thing I think about fairly often: the time my high school band performed “Zoot Suit Riot”, written by “the CP Daddies”
The Cherry Popping Daddies had to change their name to the Daddies for a while in the 80s, because a woman wrote an angry letter complaining that the name triggered her horribly. It was a cause celebre at the University of Oregon that year.
Oooooooooh.
By that same token, there are a TON of songs that are secretly about oral sex. Some of these are:
Extreme – More Than Words
Prince – Head
TLC – Waterfalls
Cab Calloway – Everybody Eats When They Come To My House
Metallica – Enter Sandman
Wu-Tang Clan – Da Mystery of Chessboxin’
The Willie Nelson / Merle Haggard version of “The Legend of Pancho and Lefty”
Aphex Twin – Windowlicker
“Sleep with one eye open
Gripping your pillow tight”
… oh…
I wouldn’t call Prince’s “Head” SECRETLY about oral sex … Also, every Prince song is about oral sex.
I’m pretty sure I used to know “Waterfalls” by heart and I did not know this.
I’m lying about all but one of them 😉
“Head” is all about Prince’s passion for iceberg lettuce
And “Gett Off” is just a helpful suggestion for exiting the subway.
Or his lawn.
Damn you! I was like, “pshh I know Waterfalls is about a woman begging her man not to cheat on her”. Then I watched the video. P.S. younger suburban self – not what it’s about. Really sad song.
Beatles – Please Please Me
… Is that a secret one or was I an oblivious child?
Wait a minute… Waterfalls? I could have sworn it was about people dying from gang-banging, or from AIDS, or… hold on I need to go watch that video again.
Madonna – Like a Prayer
Wait, that was definitely not a secret.
Cab Calloway – Everybody Eats When They Come To My House
Aww, man, you just made me spit water on my monitor!
Rob Ford’s reelection campaign slogan.
The Crystals – And then He Kissed Me
Genuine LOL!
I remember being in high school and ben folds came on the car and I was all “I like this vaguely sad song” and my mom was like WHY DO YOU LIKE A SONG ABOUT ABORTION.
Buffalo Int’l Airport is constantly playing Goo Goo Dolls songs. Now there’s a whole new layer of depressing to that fact.
Are there any obscure but happy songs about abortion? Like, “thank god it’s over/lets go to dover/ she was sick in the morning/but now we’re happy to be abortin”? I made that up obviously, because no one has ever written a better or more rhyming set of lyrics, but wouldn’t that be great?
I think maybe Twist and Shout is about joyously shaking the fetus out.
Neko Case’s “Pretty Girls,” mentioned above, isn’t cheery, per se, but it is more hopeful/optimistic than most of these – “don’t let them tell you you’re nothing, ’cause you’ll change the world, pretty girls” in particular.
Needs more peppy. I love that song, but it ain’t exactly a defiant ode of joy. Just not one of these sad sacks is like, “it was awesome! One lousy weekend and we got to go to college and like, be free to parent with someone better suited to us a decade later when we had stable careers. And actually now that we think back on it, it wasn’t as bad as our wisdom teeth coming out.”
When Under Ether, PJ Harvey
Fair point, but at least Neko doesn’t have people sobbing on the floor. UNLIKE THESE DUDES.
Would Oasis by Amanda Palmer work for that?
I still sometimes don’t realize that songs that sound like they are about dancing are actually about sex. OR ARE THEY?
I’m generally pretty oblivious to this too, but I blame the fact that unless I look up the actual written lyrics to a song, I usually mis-hear at least 50% of the words.
Me, too. Also the fact that I have trouble transitioning from Things I Hear to the part of my brain that analyzes if it’s only heard. I gotta have some kind of visual to help me focus.
I can hear perfectly well, but I absolutely must have closed captioning turned on for any kind of tv or video where I don’t want to miss anything. (Which is why I’m constantly surprised at how well I remember the content of NPR programs, which I only listen to while driving.)
It doesn’t help that I also have Ax from Animorphs syndrome where subtleties in poetry(song lyrics) pass me by entirely.
I swear to doge I thought ‘Freshmen’ was about a cascade of drug overdoses and suicides.
Hey, I got one. “Chained,” by the Pixies.
uh! said the man to the lady
uh! said the lady to the man she adored
and the whores like a choir
uh uh! all night
and Mary ain’t you tired?
but this uh
is
the
sound
that the mother makes! when the baby breaks!
we’re chained…
I don’t think that’s about abortion, I think that’s about giving birth…
OOPS. It’s called “Hey,” of course.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6xU96KLBL4
I am pretty sure Michelle Shocked’s Prodigal Daughter (Cotton Eye Joe) is about abortion. Not stubbed toes. Pretty sure, at any rate.
I saw her perform that at Jazzfest and, abortion, yes.
okay, so now I want a list of songs by *women* that are about abortion (secretly or otherwise). Because, yes, I am sure that it is rough on a dude when his ladyfriend has an abortion and such, but where’s my song about huddling in the shower because the hot water is the only thing that makes the cramping and the bleeding even remotely tolerable?
(in fairness “she’s feeling more alone than she ever has before” is a pretty good description of how I felt at the time)
Seriously, that Ben Folds song is a HORRIBLE example. He dumps her, right? SHE’S the brick, and HE’S drowning slowly? This needs to not be America’s Official Song About Abortion.
He dumps her??? Guys, this is sadder than Red Ragtop
I love you so much, Mallory. I loved that song as teenager. Then again, I thought 2Become1 was about being Best Friends Forever.
Ani Difranco’s Lost Woman Song. Most definitely about abortion.
Anika Moa, In The Morning. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx3P3jRKZQg
It’s not exactly happy, it’s fairly mournful about making the choice actually.
All I ever wanted is to be near a face
In the morning , in the morning
After the operation my heart will become erased
And I will miss you, I will miss you
Bleed, bleed, bleed, bleed, that’s all I ever do
A built in sunroom for everyone to frame
I’m so lucky to have a great career
But after all the fuss I just wanted to have you
“Oasis” by Amanda Palmer, which is a) definitely and b) explicitly about abortion. And slut-shaming, kind of. And also weirdly catchy.
There’s a theory that the folk song Scarorough Fair is about abortion, in a sort of “how to do it” way: all the herbs listed either contain or were thought to contain abortifactents, and there’s all sorts of barrenness imagery in the song. Dry wells, thorn that “never bore blossom since Adam was born,” etc. I always thought it was kind of a cool theory, even if the oldest recorded lyrics don’t necessarily bear it out.
Weird – I always thought it sounded like a recipe for a chicken stuffing. Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme is definitely the way to go. With a sauteed onion, some lemon zest and breadcrumbs.
“Baby Birch” by Joanna Newsom is the opposite. Sounds like it’s about abortion; really is about a breakup and the child they might have had if they’d stayed together.
I was scrolling down here to comment about this song! Although I definitely still feel like could just be interpreted as being about an abortion, that fits in with interpretation of the album as a whole just as well.
I’m not convinced that “The Freshman” is about abortion–I attended Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo and Verve Pipe was a local band and I used to have a copy of their first album (called “I’ve Suffered a Head Injury”)–the story, even then, was that it was about a girl who tried to (and was maybe successful) commit suicide with pills.
However, there is John Wesley Harding/Wesley Stace’s “MissFortune” which opens with the line, “I was born with a coat hanger in my mouth” and it’s basically about a person born via botched abortion and who is a boy brought up as a girl in Victorian England (Wes later wrote a book, “Misfortune”, about this character, it’s really quite good).
THAT WAS THE NAME OF THAT BOOK.
I bought it a few years ago and lost it in a move and couldn’t remember it’s name so couldn’t replace it.
Seconding how good that book is and generally having more Wesley Stace acknowledgment in the world.
I love that book! And the soundtrack is fantastic too.
I’m fantasizing about it becoming a BBC miniseries…
No idea about slide, but I HATED Brick because it seemed like the douchiest possible response to the girlfriend’s obvious emotional distress after the procedure. “She’s a brick and you’re drowning slowly”? So sorry her near-catatonic depression bums you out, bro.
Yup. It’s a primer on how *not* to behave in that situation.
Oh you guys. PJ Harvey’s When Under Ether just didn’t make the list because it’s so direct, right? “Something’s inside me/unborn and unblessed/disappears in the ether/this world to the next.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnUQwE0YhZo
Ugh! Enough with all these dudes writing songs about abortion. Gross.
Commenting for the first time ever to put forward my pet theory that The Dixie Chicks’ Voice Inside My Head is about a woman who aborted (or maybe gave up for adoption?) her baby a long time ago and thinks about it every once. Let’s do a close reading of the first verse and bridge:
I was only a kid
When I said goodbye to you
Ten summers ago
But it feels like yesterday
Lost, scared and alone
Nothing I could give to you
I tried, I really did
But I couldn’t find another way
And I want and I need
Somehow to believe
In the choice I made
Am I better off this way
Apparently they’ve said it’s about an old boyfriend but COME ON, this even has the word “choice” in it! “Nothing I could give to you” sounds far more like it’s about potentially inadequate parenting then about a summer fling that doesn’t work out. She even says she’s alone, which makes the abortion/adoption angle more likely than the “I was with someone but I couldn’t give him enough love” angle.
Listen to the whole song and weigh in. I have tried to convince friends but no one I know listens to the Dixie Chicks so they don’t really want to hear my ranting about it. http://youtu.be/GSgx1jwAdJ8
YUP. Just read the lyrics, and just… yup. I’m more inclined to think that it’s about giving a baby up for adoption, than abortion, though — the line “you should be with me instead” sounds like, “instead of your adoptive parents,” moreso than “instead of not existing because you were aborted.”
Once again the thread is reading my mind! *theremin solo* Spooky. I first heard this as a breakup song bc all songs are ultimately about me and my personal problems, but even the DJ who put it on said it was a really well-worded song about putting a kid up for adoption. I totally believe it could be read as an abortion story, too. My mom went the full nine months with my would-have-been younger sibling who was born dead, and every time I’m feeling down, I wonder what it would have been like with him/her around. Can only imagine it as a million times worse for my mom, and the same kind of painful what-iffery for someone releasing a child in any way or form. #sad
Not abortion, but in the same vein: I thought Vanessa Carlton’s song “White Houses” was about a car crash, not losing your virginity, when I was in high school.
I was so obsessed with the Goo Goo Dolls in middle and high school that I could probably tell you even the most mundane trivia about them now, and once my ex-boyfriend, knowing my favorite song was “Slide,” changed all the “May”s to “Kaye”s in the song lyrics, printed them out, and hung them on my locker. You know, as a birthday present.
I should mention he came from a deeply Catholic family so I don’t think the concept of abortion ever even occurred to him as something that existed in the world, much as in songs that I loved.
For like two months there was a rumor that I’d had an abortion. (I don’t think he ever knew about this rumor.)
The moral of the story is that you should probably figure out what a song is about before you put your girlfriend’s name on it and hang it on her locker for all the school to see.
Edit: I guess a good question to ask here is why was I obsessed with the Goo Goo Dolls, of all bands, and I HONESTLY COULD NOT TELL YOU.
“I guess a good question to ask here is why was I obsessed with the Goo Goo Dolls, of all bands, and I HONESTLY COULD NOT TELL YOU.”
Could it have been because Johnny Rzeznik was pretty hot before Father Time caught up with him? That’s why I was obsessed with them at that age.
Same here but I like draco’s theory about Rzeznik’s general hotness because their music sure doesnt hold up. I also loved the Replacements (and still do) which is the band the GGD clearly wanted to be so I guess I had some redeeming taste.
Oh my God ALSO, almost every song The 1975 writes is about drugs. This came as an enormous shock to my mother, who thought that “Chocolate” was genuinely, truly about chocolate.
WHY WOULD THE COPS BE AFTER A GAGGLE OF TEENAGERS WHO HAVE A BUNCH OF CHOCOLATE, MOM.
One of my favorite songs in high school was “It’s Just a Fantasy,” by Billy Joel. My dad and I sang it in the car on the way to school EVERYDAY…then I watched the video and realized it was about phone sex.
Point of contention –
The band’s name is Ben Fold Five, not Ben Folds ( he was not a solo artist at taht point)
I also never know when songs about masturbation, see: Shebop, Turning Japanese
Isn’t Teardrops By Massive attack about abortion?
Age 3, suddenly parents realize letting their kid listen to a lot of Prince is a bad idea when they run around shops singing the lyrics…
Due to this post, I have finally googled KT Tunstall’s “Black Horse and a Cherry Tree” and discovered that it is NOT about abortion, which means I can stop being confused every time I hear that song. (The “heart stopping” reference, that I guess people took to be a reference to the abortion, actually referenced Tunstall’s own heart defect.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYEU91d8ngc
(For whatever reason, I always thought it was about rejecting a series of proposals from various lovers until you found the person you wanted to share your life with, but I don’t think that’s really borne out by the lyrics either.)
I definitely knew “Brick” was about abortion and I think I eventually suspected that “The Freshmen” may have been, but I really had no idea about “Slide.”
Then again, 12-year-old me also decided that the Goo Goo Dolls song “Name” was about Anne Frank, because 12-year-old me was goddamn weird.
I’m struck by:
a) How the song “Freshmen” makes me cry on command all these years later and,
b) How all of these songs are sung by males and written from the male POV. Are there femal-sung songs about abortion, or is this one of those topics where it’s easier for a guy to express something because it’s not “about them” in the precise way that it’s about the woman and her decision?
What about that Anna Nalick song Breathe? There’s a verse that is DEFINITELY about abortion:
2 AM and she calls me ’cause I’m still awake,
“Can you help me unravel my latest mistake?,
I don’t love him. Winter just wasn’t my season”
Yeah we walk through the doors, so accusing their eyes
Like they have any right at all to criticize,
Hypocrites. You’re all here for the very same reason
I always thought it was too, but I thought I was the only one!
I give you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GD_wDWuh5w
With most of these songs, though abortion fits what they say, so would some other things. They are suggestive rather than specific and give you space to find your own meanings in them. So you don’t have to stop liking them if you find out they’re ‘about abortion’ – if that’s a reason that would make you stop liking them – because they don’t *have* to be about abortion. I guess we like the idea of solving or decoding a song as though it were a puzzle, but the music and words evoke emotions and associations that don’t have to be pinned down to one particular scenario and can mean different things to different people.
When I was a kid my dad told me that Living Thing by ELO was about NOT having an abortion, does that count? The title definitely suggests so.
Oh wow. My husband and I used Slide as one of the songs for our wedding video. Obviously had no idea it was about abortion until just now when I googled the lyrics.
I always vaguely thought Slide was about being gay, or coming out of the closet, or being in love with someone who won’t come out of the closet… something along those lines. Never imagined it was actually abortion.
“Carry the blame” by River City People is also about abortion, and is one of the saddest songs ever 🙁
I love that book! And the soundtrack is fantastic too.
I'm fantasizing about it becoming a BBC miniseries…
I’m chronically bad at hearing lyrics In-correctly. This was never more true than when I was throwing a baby shower for a friend (with our mothers and their church friends). I decided to make a mixed CD with songs about babies on it for the favor. I included Anna by Hello Saferide on the mix. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBILTiLIJM0. If you listen to it at all, it’s clearly about abortion, but I thought it was just nice about wishes for baby. Later, my conservative Christian mother called me up to call me out on my blunder.
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